Icebreaker (non-fiction book)

Icebreaker: Who Started the Second World War?, by Viktor Suvorov (Russian title: Ledokol, Ледокол) is a book which leads a reader to believe that Stalin used Nazi Germany as an "icebreaker" to start a war in Europe which would allow for the Soviet Union to come in, clean up, and take control of all of Europe. In his foreword "To the Reader" however, Suvorov states right away "There is no single answer to this question".

Suvorov claims that, just as Stalin eliminated his political enemies by pitting them against one another, so too was the plan when he gave Hitler the support to attack Poland, knowing that the act would trigger a war between Germany and the United Kingdom and its allies. The principal argument is based on an analysis of Soviet military investments, diplomatic maneuvers, Politburo speeches and other data. Suvorov suggests that Stalin perceived the outcome of World War II as a loss. Suvorov mentions the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact along with its secret auxiliary protocol, existence of both were constantly denied by the Kremlin authorities until fall of the Soviet Union.

Suvorov's thesis

Suvorov challenges the view that Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime attacked an unsuspecting USSR on June 22, 1941 with a much superior and better prepared force. Instead, Suvorov argues that the Soviet Union was poised to invade Nazi-controlled territories in July 1941.

Suvorov claims that Stalin successfully manipulated Hitler into removing the "buffer zone" (Poland) between Europe and the USSR. Suvorov further argues that Stalin's goal was the export of communism to other countries. Once Hitler 'broke the ice', Soviet victory in the large-scale war that followed would enable the USSR to impose Stalinist regimes on most of Europe. In this theory, Nazi military aggression would ironically form the icebreaker for a communist invasion.

Historians' Criticism

The View That the German Invasion was preemptive strike is not Shared by most Historians

Rolf-Dieter Müller a former professor of military history at Humboldt University served as the scientific director at the Center for Military History and Social Sciences of the Bundeswehr. states Hitler claimed that he had been forced to counter Soviet expansionism with a preemptive strike. Proponents of this absurd justification can still be found today, a few even among historians and retired generals.

See also

• Germany–Soviet Union relations before 1941 and 1940 German–Soviet Axis talks
• Soviet offensive plans controversy
• Eastern Front (World War II)
• 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland and 1932 Soviet–Polish Non-Aggression Pact

Further reading

• Suvorov, Viktor. Icebreaker: Who Started the Second World War? (Viking Press/Hamish Hamilton; 1990) ISBN 0-241-12622-3
• Glantz, David. Stumbling Colossus: The Red Army on the Eve of World War. University Press of Kansas (May 1998), ISBN 0-7006-0879-6
• Gorodetsky, Gabriel. Grand Delusion: Stalin and the German Invasion of Russia. Yale University Press (2001) ISBN 0300084595
• Suvorov, Viktor. The Chief Culprit: Stalin's Grand Design to Start World War II. Potomac Books (July 20, 2007) ISBN 1-59797-114-6
• Short, Neil The Stalin and Molotov Lines: Soviet Western Defences 1928-41. Osprey Publishing; (September 23, 2008) ISBN 1846031923
• Template:Ru icon "Posledniy Mif" (The Last Myth). Vladimir Sinelnikov and Igor Shevtsov. "KLOTO". 1999. Film.

External links

• Online books of Viktor Suvorov (mostly in Russian)
• Template:En icon Suvorov, V. Icebreaker. Translated by Thomas B. Beattie. "Hamish Hamilton". London 1990.